Film-based X-ray imaging had been used for medical and industrial applications for many years.
However, such film-based X-ray imaging is inefficient in terms of cost and time due to required development of an imaged film and difficulty of preservation of the developed film. To address this problem, X-ray imaging that uses a digital image sensor is currently being used instead of the film-based imaging.
A digital image sensor is generally made of a rigid material so as not to be bendable. This characteristic poses some problems according to imaging methods or usages.
For example, in an X-ray imaging process to obtain an X-ray image of an internal structure of the mouth, such as teeth and surrounding tissues, an image sensor is positioned in the mouth and an X-ray is irradiated to the internal structure. At this point, to obtain a cleaner X-ray image, the image sensor is brought into contact with and pressed against an internal structure in the mouth. Therefore, a patient has discomfort or pain.
To solve this problem, persons ordinarily skilled in the art have been researching an image sensor that is bendable within a predetermined bending limit.
At the present time, however, only a concept of a bendable image sensor is being discussed, and no specific technology to realize such a bendable image sensor has been presented in the field.